Xofigo Treatment for Prostate Cancer Metastatic to Bones

Xofigo (Radium 223) Treatment of Bone Metastases in Advanced Prostate and other cancers.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Xofigo® (radium Ra 223 dichloride) to treat men with metastatic, hormone-refractory prostate cancer that has spread to bones but not to other organs. Xofigo is being evaluated in other cancers that are metastatic to bone.

Xofigo is a radiopharmaceutical agent that binds with minerals in the bone to deliver radiation directly to bone tumors, thereby limiting the damage to the surrounding normal tissues.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the drug in May 2013 after a trial known as Alpharadin in Symptomatic Prostate Cancer Patients (ALSYMPCA) was stopped early after an interim analysis showed that treatment with Xofigo significantly improved survival, compared with placebo. The trial included 921 men with symptomatic hormone-refractory prostate cancer that had spread to bones, but not other organs. Patients were randomly assigned to receive Xofigo or a placebo plus standard treatment. The results indicated that men who received Xofigo lived an average of 15 months, compared to 11 months for the men in the placebo group.

The most common side effects associated with Xofigo were nausea, diarrhea, vomiting and swelling of the leg, ankle or foot. The most common abnormalities detected during blood testing included low levels of red blood cells (anemia), lymphocytes (lymphocytopenia), white blood cells (leukopenia), platelets (thrombocytopenia) and infection-fighting white blood cells (neutropenia).

What Do Other Clinical Studies of Xofigo Show?

Xofigo Improves Bone and Pain in Prostate Cancer

Patients with hormone-refractory prostate cancer and bone metastases had significant improvement in skeletal- and pain-related outcomes when treated with Xofigo® (radium-223), according to the results of a study presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Radiation Oncology.

Patients treated with Xofigo had a 34 percent reduction in the relative risk of any skeletal even compared with those in the placebo group. Patients in the Xofigo group experienced less overall bone pain than those in the placebo group. What’s more, Xofigo appeared to improve pain-related quality of life and delay time to the use of radiation and/or opioids for bone pain as well as delay time to the first skeletal event.

The results of the secondary analysis indicated that all bone- and pain-related outcomes favored the Xofigo group:

Time to first skeletal event was 15.6 months in the Xofigo group, compared with 9.8 months in the placebo group

Xofigo delayed the time to first radiation of the bone; 30 percent of patients receiving Xofigo underwent radiation, compared to 34 percent of those receiving placebo

Fewer patients in the Xofigo group (36%) needed opioids for pain compared with those in the placebo group (50%)

Fewer patients in the Xofigo group experienced symptomatic pathologic fractures or spinal cord compression, compared with the placebo group.

The researchers concluded that Xofigo improves pain-related quality of life in patients with metastatic hormone-refractory prostate cancer and delays the time to the first skeletal-related event and the first use of radiation and opioids.

Xofigo Extends Survival in Hormone-Refractory Prostate Cancer

For patients with advanced hormone-refractory prostate cancer, the agent Xofigo® (radium-223) appears similarly effective in patients who have and have not received Taxotere® (docetaxel), a chemotherapy drug that can be used in the treatment of advanced prostate cancer. These findings were recently published in The Lancet Oncology.

To evaluate the effect of Xofigo in patients who had and had not received Taxotere, researchers divided participants in the ALYSYMPCA trial in two treatment groups:

One group received six injections with Xofigo (one injection given every four weeks).

The other group received the same injection schedule with a placebo (inactive substitute).

All participants had advanced hormone-refractory prostate cancer and at least two bone metastases. The researchers noted whether or not the patients had received Taxotere. Of the 921 patients in the trial, 526 had received Taxotere; 352 of these patients received Xofigo during the trial, and 174 received placebo. The remaining patients had not previously received Taxotere (262 in the Xofigo group and 133 in the placebo group).

Xofigo appeared active in patients with advanced hormone-refractory prostate cancer, whether or not they had received previous treatment with Taxotere. Both patients who had and had not been treated with Taxotere had longer median survival than patients who received placebo. As well, patients who had previously been treated with Taxotere had a significantly longer median time before their first symptomatic skeletal event (pathological fracture, radiation therapy to bone, surgery to bone, or spinal cord compression) compared with those who had not received Taxotere: about 15 months versus about eight months.

Side effects for Xofigo were similar between patients who had and hadn’t received Taxotere. They occurred in 62% of those who had received Taxotere and in 54% of those who had not. Side effects included thrombocytopenia (low platelet counts), anemia, and neutropenia (low neutrophil counts, a type of blood cell that fights infection).

Based on these trial results, the researchers concluded that Xofigo appears effective in patients with advanced hormone-refractory prostate cancer, whether or not they’ve had previous treatment with Taxotere. Xofigo also appears well tolerated in these patients.

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